'Orange this Way' have written this fantastic guest Blog post for us in connection with the Changing Places Campaign, for National Continence Week.

a very public (in)convenience

I don’t know about you, but one of the reasons I’m not at Glastonbury this weekend with all the other mud-coated revellers is because I can’t quite get my head around the festival loo situation. Queuing up in the rain to use a long drop with no toilet paper is enough to put me right off going to Glastonbury, even with the most star-studded of line ups or luxury boutique camping on offer.But can you imagine if there were no toilets at Glastonbury at all? Or if there were toilets that were only accessible to people over the height of 6ft 5? Or that would collapse if anyone over 10 stone entered the cubicle? There would be uproar among the hundreds of thousands of Glasto fans. Or, quite simply, people wouldn’t go.We have become used to toilet facilities being available to us pretty much wherever we go in the UK. Public toilets began being introduced in London in 1851 and since then have become a familiar feature of cities, towns, villages, attractions, public buildings and restaurants across the country. It would be unthinkable to go for a day out in a public place or to a major event and there not be a toilet available, right? Wouldn’t it?Unfortunately for some of the most vulnerable people in our society this is not the case. Until the advent of the Changing Places Campaign in 2006 there were no toilets available in the whole of the UK for the ¼ million people who cannot use standard or typical accessible/disabled toilets. According to Changing Places, this includes people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, severe physical disabilities as well as some older people. A quarter of a million people.This quarter of a million includes my son, Lawrence, who is five years old and wears a pad because his disabilities mean he does not have adequate control over his own toileting, or the ability to transfer to a toilet, even a ‘disabled’ one. He needs to be changed by a carer, regularly, throughout the day. When he was tiny, we used the baby changing facilities like every other parent. Luckily, these have been installed in most public places and restaurants across the country because managers have recognised that families with young children are an important and valuable part of their customer base who have money to spend.Unfortunately the same is not yet true for severely disabled people. A quarter of a million people. And their families.In the vast majority of public places in the UK, the place where severely disabled people get changed by their carer is the toilet floor of the disabled loo. The filthy, often urine-soaked and dirty, toilet floor. A place that most people would only want the soles of their shoes to touch.This is the now the reality we face with our little boy. The same reality faced by vulnerable, severely disabled people and their carers across the country. It is not safe. It is not dignified. It is not kind. It is often the reason why severely disabled people and their families are limited to local short trips out only, or why they very rarely leave the house at all. For many carers, lifting a disabled teenager or adult from a wheelchair onto the floor of a toilet and back again would quite simply be impossible, never mind the filth.What people like our little boy need is a toilet that can be used in safety and comfort for both him and for us as his carers, which has more space than a conventional disabled loo and the right equipment – including an adult sized height adjustable changing bench and a hoist.Changing Places have made great progress on campaigning for suitable toilet facilities for severely disabled people over the last 10 years, but there are still less than 1,000 across the whole of the UK. In Cornwall, where we live, there are only 10 Changing Places toilets in the whole of the county. I am delighted to say that this will soon become 11, as a result of a local parent the new (and fabulous) Cornwall Services on the A30 has understood the need for these facilities and is fitting one as I type. I am, though, sorely disappointed to see that in all the £17.6 million revamp of the Hall for Cornwall, there are currently no plans to install a Changing Places toilet, despite vocal campaigning from parent carer and disability groups.John Lewis (a favourite retailer of mine until last week) responded to Changing Places a few days ago to say that they ‘didn’t have space’ to fit a Changing Places toilet in one of their flagship stores that has over 70,000 square footage of retail space. Imagine if they said they ‘didn’t have space’ to fit regular toilets, or if they said they didn’t have space for a café, or a shoe department? Unthinkable.Already, even with Lawrence being quite small, we are finding ourselves planning family days out and long journeys around where there is a Changing Places toilet. We love the Eden Project, because they have a fabulous Changing Places loo, as do the Life Centre and Drakes Circus shopping centre in Plymouth. But beyond that, it’s pretty sparse. What will we do when we can no longer lift him ourselves and when we get sick of carrying around a mat soaked in urine from the toilet floor?We will be isolated.You see, it’s not just the person with disabilities who suffers when there is no toilet they can use. The lack of Changing Places facilities isolates entire families too. Families who have money to spend at your restaurant, shop, theme park, hotel or festival, just like everybody else.So please, if you are a restaurant owner, a hotel, shopping centre or theme park manager, or a local authority public convenience planning officer (do they even exist?) then please, please fit a Changing Places toilet. Not only will you see the investment repay itself with new loyal customers but you will be changing lives.Oh, and by the way? If you’re heading to Glastonbury this weekend and one of your party is severely disabled, you’ll be thrilled to hear that the festival has a Changing Places toilet in the Spring Ground Accessible Campsite. For everyone else, if you’re not keen on the long drops, you might want to check out the compost loos… Good luck ;)